Homeless 90210: Slumming time and the livin's easy

[CptSternn]

http://tinyurl.com/5bfcf7

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Being homeless in this upper crust enclave is not exactly like living on the street in other places. There are handouts of $2,000 and bottles of Dom Perignon, lucky finds of Gucci shoes and diamond-encrusted bracelets, a chance to rub shoulders with rich and famous locals such as Mark Wahlberg and Master P, even empty houses to live in.

"This is the finest place you can be," said Isaac Young, an affable 59-year-old with a wide grin and a smooth baritone voice who has been homeless in Beverly Hills since 1992.

In this manicured community of 35,000, Rolls Royces and Lamborghinis glide around city streets, movie stars live in gated mansions and Rodeo Drive price tags provoke gasps from tourists.

But the city also features about 30 rather scruffy residents who live in parks, bus shelters and alleyways.

They're an incongruous sight amid the shows of superfluous wealth, underscoring the pervasiveness of the huge homeless population in Los Angeles County. Some 74,000 people live on the streets or in shelters, making the county the nation's capital of homelessness.

"Homelessness is just all over, even Beverly Hills," said John Joel Roberts, chief executive of Path Partners, which provides street outreach services.

But the homeless in Beverly Hills have direct access to something most street dwellers do not: rich people, who can afford to be pretty generous. They pull up in Porsches and SUVs offering trays of cooked food, designer clothing still in dry-cleaner plastic and odd jobs.

"They have a sympathetic thing for us and we're grateful for it," said a man with grizzled hair pulling a train of wheeled suitcases, an office chair and a stroller piled high with a motley bunch of items found in the trash. He would only identify himself as "Bond."

Sometimes life even imitates the 1986 movie "Down and Out in Beverly Hills," in which a homeless man (Nick Nolte) is taken in by a hoity-toity couple (Richard Dreyfuss and Bette Midler).

At a park where homeless people congregate next to the Good Shepherd Catholic Church, Young found a benefactor who is allowing him to live free for a year in an empty house in swanky Benedict Canyon.

"He said 'Here's your second chance,'" said Young, who has lived in the TWA lounge at Los Angeles International Airport and on the streets of Hollywood, where he got wrapped up in drugs and alcohol. "I couldn't believe it."

A well-off couple from Manhattan Beach who also befriended Young gave him furniture, he said.

Young, who cannot read or write but composes poetry in his head and performs it, has six more months in his Benedict Canyon abode. He still panhandles to pay for expenses — actor Wahlberg gave him new clothes — but after a lifetime as a compulsive gambler and spender, he's finally learning to save money and wants to get an apartment.

He has a good incentive. His eyes mist as he looks toward a stone park bench where he slept for a decade and promises himself it won't be another 10 years.

Those lucky breaks are one reason why George, who would not give his last name, has lived in Beverly Hills for the past 16 years. "You never know what you're going to meet," he said, noting he once got $10 from Rod Stewart.

George, a lanky man who pedals a bicycle around town and sleeps on a building roof, said paparazzi and parking valets can be a problem when he panhandles outside celebrity haunts. But being close to wealth can lead to $100 handouts, or finds such as gold jewelry, video cameras and an Armani suit.

He was so thrilled with the suit that he wore it panhandling until he noticed he wasn't doing too well.

"You have to have a certain look to get sympathy — dirty, kind of stupid, not aware," he said.

He also knows an opportunity when he sees one. For a couple months, he hung out in a vacant house, lounging by the pool drinking up the liquor he found in a cabinet until the owner walked in on him. He managed to flee.

"I was just using the facilities," George said. "I wasn't robbing no one."

That's a typical scenario, said Beverly Hills police Lt. Tony Lee, but for the most part, the homeless don't cause problems. They occasionally get arrested for petty theft or aggressive panhandling. They're usually held for 72 hours for psychiatric evaluation and fined and released if deemed harmless.

Many are mentally ill but pose no threat. The city tries to refer them to counselors, shelters or drug rehabs, but they prefer street life, city spokeswoman Cheryl Burnett said.

Bond said some homeless avoid Beverly Hills because they're turned off by the uberwealthy, who require a certain amount of deference.

"A lot of homeless don't want to be with snooty, rich people," he said. "You have to be respectful and not act like an idiot. If you're a derelict, they're going to call the cops on you. We're the upscale bums."

[CptSternn]

I found this article amazing. Not because of all the high price free swag that the bums in beverly hills get, I assumed as much, I find it amazing that there are 35,000 residents there and 74,000 homeless in the same city.

Does that not shock everyone? I mean, you think of beverly hills, you think of all the rich, but never think there are TWICE that number of people living there on the streets!

The fact that America has that many homeless living in one area should be an outrage to every American. As I said before, in Europe they have measures to fix this. In Ireland/UK we have government sponsored living assistance welfare which gives anyone who can't afford it money for rent. EVERYONE qualifies for it - being a citizen means your entitled to it, just go fill out a form and the government pays your rent.

To know in America, purportedly the 'richest' nation in the world, that there are areas where the homeless outnumber the average citizens 2 to 1 makes you think.

Makes you wonder how they can afford to spend 6 BILLION a month on guns and bombs in Iraq, yet their own people have to live on the street in destitute poverty, eating out of garbage bins.

Makes you really think about what America values as a nation when you see what many citizens in many areas live like in comparison to the MTV cribs lifestyle they try to sell you in the TV adverts.

What exactly are they going to bring to Iraq? Freedom? By freedom do they mean removing socialised medicine and taking away state sponsored welfare for the truly poor so they can build a new McWhopper Burger there? More police with guns so they can push said poor out of the 'nice' urban areas they develop to the run down slums where the media can't see them?

Capitalism comes with a price, its usually one soul (your own).

[Beneath the Shadows]

Originally Posted by CptSternn

I found this article amazing. Not because of all the high price free swag that the bums in beverly hills get, I assumed as much, I find it amazing that there are 35,000 residents there and 74,000 homeless in the same city.

Does that not shock everyone? I mean, you think of beverly hills, you think of all the rich, but never think there are TWICE that number of people living there on the streets!

I think you need to read that part over again. The 35,000 figure is how many people live in Beverly Hills alone. The 74,000 is the number of homeless people in all of LA county.

[Joker_in_the_Pack]

Sternn, mate, LA County has something like 2 Million people

[Splintered]

Originally Posted by Joker_in_the_Pack

Sternn, mate, LA County has something like 2 Million people

Nearly ten million, actually (9,948,081).

[Joker_in_the_Pack]

Originally Posted by Splintered

Nearly ten million, actually (9,948,081).

Wow, I was off. At least I didn't think there are 75,000 homeless people in Beverly Hills O_O

[PortraitOfSanity]

I spent almost 2 years wandering the country on freight trains, though I never considered myself homeless, since I had a home, I just chose not to live there. Brought a hefty dose of reality into my life, plus I wouldn't trade that experience for anything. You'd be surprised how many people who live like that would choose not to give up the lifestyle even if you offered them an apartment and a job. Obviously not all are there by choice, but a good part of them just feel free living like that. They don't pay bills, they don't answer to anybody, no one holds them back. I admire that in a way, giving up worldly comfort to experience your own brand of freedom.

[Fatbaby]

Many of the people living on the street for a long time suffer from mental disorders. A great number of homeless people have bi-polar disorder, some are schizophrenic, others have PTSD. The criminals make victims of their compatriots. It is the bottom of a terrible economic system that there has to be socially or mentally ill people living on the street.

[Splintered]

Originally Posted by Joker_in_the_Pack

Wow, I was off. At least I didn't think there are 75,000 homeless people in Beverly Hills O_O

I never realized how big California was until someone put it in to perspective for me:

California has a population of 36,553,215 with a density of 90.49 people per km².

Canada, on the other hand, has a population of 33,374,000 with a density of 3.2 people per km².

[A Simple Poet]

Fatbaby wrote:

Many of the people living on the street for a long time suffer from mental disorders. A great number of homeless people have bi-polar disorder, some are schizophrenic, others have PTSD. The criminals make victims of their compatriots. It is the bottom of a terrible economic system that there has to be socially or mentally ill people living on the street.

I work in transit marketing ... a job I despise, mind you. And one of the reasons is because everyday I see people in my community (and America) receiving free hand outs with Medicare when they have homes, and there are homeless people in the straits Fatbaby mentioned who recieve nothing.

Sadly, many are veterans and more of those are from the theater in Iraq. It is staggering to me that not only is health care in America a topic related cloesly to being in an aristocracy, but mental health care is largely ignored altogether.

[CptSternn]

Maybe I did misread the stats. Even if that is the population in LA county, thats still a large number of homeless people.

I mean, most Irish towns have less than 10,000 people total. A 'large' city in Ireland usually means 200,000. Those numbers are true throughout most of Europe. To see what would basically be almost half the population of Limerick homeless in one area is still a very shocking number to me.

[PortraitOfSanity]

I wouldn't call it shocking, if you've ever been to a big city in the States after dark, you know there's a lot of homeless. It's pretty bad yea, but not shocking.

[Dr Nancy]

Originally Posted by Fatbaby

Many of the people living on the street for a long time suffer from mental disorders. A great number of homeless people have bi-polar disorder, some are schizophrenic, others have PTSD. The criminals make victims of their compatriots. It is the bottom of a terrible economic system that there has to be socially or mentally ill people living on the street.

It's fucking sad.
I don't know how bloody politicians sleep at night.